Download speed not up to scratch?

[Raz]

Hi everyone, friendly forum you have here. Fingers crossed you can help me out with some longstanding issues.

I joined IDnet on 8 Feb from AOL hoping for great things. Ive had alot of trouble for longer than i care to remember with random disconnects and since our local exchange was upgraded ive been unable to reach the download speeds i would consider to be normal.

Im still hopeful that IDnet will help with the random d/c. I got dropped a few times in the first 10 days but put that down to the settling in period. Its happened again since, really bad on Tues or Wed this week, which is incredibly frustrating and very costly as i spend most of my time online playing poker... a d/c at the wrong time can cost me hundreds of $$$. I did read on here that gw5 IDnetters experienced some unusual d/c's the other day so maybe thats all it was. I'll continue to monitor this and pray for that elusive stable connection.

Download speeds on the other hand are really confusing me. I used to get about 200kb/s d/l speed before Goole exchange was upgraded to 8mb. As soon as that happened i dropped to speeds of about 30 and so began the longest, most frustrating customer service experience of my life. I wont bore you with the details, but after about 2 months trying AOL told me there was a fault on my line and fixed it for me.

For a few days after that i got around 450kb/s which is where i expected my speed to be, but then it dropped again to 150-200 and stayed there. Thats when i left AOL and came here expecting all my troubles to be over. The speeds however have stayed the same, apart from one day i remember seeing a speed over 400. Certainly for the last week its been a constant 150-200kb/s.

Ive done speed tests, BTspeedtester has my d/l speed at around 4700 and this hasnt varied in the 4 or 5 times ive tried it. Yesterday i rang customer support at IDnet. I was told that my line looked "fantastic" and he couldnt think of a reason why i was getting the disconnects and poor speeds. When i mentioned my router (netgear dg834g) and computer were upstairs on a telephone extension socket he suggested that may be the problem and asked me to try move the router downstairs to the main BT socket and connect wirelessly. I did this but saw no improvement. If anything the speeds were slightly slower.

I dont know what else to do now. My other problem is im totally computer illiterate so most of what i read on these forums goes completely over my head.

Any advice (for dummies) would be gratefully recieved.

Thanks

[Rik]

Hi Raz

Welcome to the forum, have a karma.   

Unfortunately, to help you, we are going to have to go into quite a bit of techno-babble. First question, what profile did the BT tester say you had?

What sort of internal telephone wiring do you have, ie how many sockets, what it connected to them, what sort of master socket do you have, ie is it the newish NTE5 type, where you can remove the bottom part of the faceplate?

More to come, but let's start with those basics.

[Lance]

Raz! 

[Inactive]

Welcome Raz...have a welcome Karma..

[Sebby]

This isn't an IDNet issue; this is something with your line. Could you post your stats? Also, do you have a socket that looks like this? If so, could you remove the front plate (be careful as there will be extension wiring connected to the inside of it, so just let it dangle) and connect your router to the socket behind. Then re-post the stats from your router. This eliminates internal wiring and allows us to see if it's something internal to your property that's causing the case.

Once again, welcome, and rest assured that we'll help you get to the bottom of this problem to the best of our ability.

[Raz]

Sorry, as soon as i posted i got called away. I have about 40 mins at my pc until i need to leave again for a couple of hours.

I just ran a speed test with btspeedtester and this was the result:

Test1 comprises of Best Effort Test:  -provides background information.
   IP profile for your line is - 6000 kbps
   DSL connection rate: 448 kbps(UP-STREAM)  7168 kbps(DOWN-STREAM)
   Actual IP throughput achieved during the test was - 3500 kbps

As far as telephone wiring goes... well i have a main socket downstairs and an extension upstairs. The main socket has my telephone and sky tv connected to it. Upstairs i only have my router connected. How do i find out what kind of socket i have? The house is 5 years old and the bottom part of the socket is attached with 2 screws so i suppose if i unscrewed those i could remove the bottom part of the faceplate. Does that help at all?

[Raz]

stats

System Up Time 22:41:49
Port Status TxPkts RxPkts Collisions Tx B/s Rx B/s Up Time
WAN PPPoA 183514 234735 0 217 1889 22:41:19
LAN 10M/100M 103016 82163 0 941 146 22:41:45
WLAN 11M/54M 128829 104462 0 998 97 22:41:34


ADSL Link Downstream Upstream
Connection Speed 7168 kbps 448 kbps
Line Attenuation 38 db 11 db
Noise Margin 9 db 24 db

[Raz]

Yes my socket looks like the one in the picture, unscrewing it fills me with dread thou. Let me see what i can do.

[Raz]

Ok that wasnt so tough. Ive moved my router downstairs, removed the bottom panel and plugged the router directly into the socket. Now connected wirelessly again and these are the new stats.

System Up Time 00:02:53
Port Status TxPkts RxPkts Collisions Tx B/s Rx B/s Up Time
WAN PPPoA 671 734 0 1106 2226 00:02:24
LAN 10M/100M 152 0 0 227 0 00:02:49
WLAN 11M/54M 803 738 0 2278 1053 00:02:38


ADSL Link Downstream Upstream
Connection Speed 8128 kbps 448 kbps
Line Attenuation 37 db 11 db
Noise Margin 7 db 23 db

Hope that helps in some way.

[Raz]

im constantly losing the wireless connection. 3 times already it dropped so im bringing the router back upstairs and connecting thru a cable. Dont know if thats relevant at all.

Edit: I have to leave for a couple of hours. Thanks alot for the help to date.

[Sebby]

Your internal wiring is adding a bit of noise; now that you've moved to the test socket, you're getting the highest possible sync of 8,128k, which would give you a profile of 7,150k. But, that's something we can look at at a later date, because the stats from the extension socket are absolutely fine, and the BT speed test results show that your profile is correct for the sync.

So, the only issue is the throughput, for which there is no logical explanation given all the information you've provided. Definitely send IDNet an email or give them a call on Monday and they will most probably get onto BT about this. Throughput of 3,500k on a 6,000k is not acceptable and I'm sure IDNet will agree.

Once the fault is sorted, you might want to think about removing the ring wire from all the sockets in your property. This should reduce the noise picked up by extension wiring, and allow you to achieve full sync at an extension socket. But, like I say, things are looking good at the moment anyway in terms of your connection rate and stats; it's just the throughput issue, which is not likely to be something at your end.

Let us know how you get on, and I hope this helps.

[Dopamine]

My download speed has been up and down ever since joining IDNet at the beginning of Feb. Off peak it's always great, 6.6mbps with a 7150 profile, but evenings and afternoons it only occasionally reaches that high. Today it's been hovering between 1.5 and 4mbps.

I'm sure my hardware is fine, so I figure it's contention somewhere. IDNet is far better than Pipex ever was, because of the absence of traffic management, but the consistent speeds I was expecting just haven't materialised.

Here's a BT Speedtester result from a couple of minutes ago:

Test1 comprises of Best Effort Test:  -provides background information.
    IP profile for your line is - 7150 kbps
    DSL connection rate: 448 kbps(UP-STREAM)  8128 kbps(DOWN-STREAM)
    Actual IP throughput achieved during the test was - 1865 kbps

[Sebby]

All I can say is that it's not normal for IDNet; speeds are consistently good be it day or night, weekday or weekend, so there must be some other underlying problem. From the information you provided, it doesn't look like there is anything wrong at your end; in fact, everything looks great. Therefore, I'd urge you to speak to IDNet, who I'm certain will get to the bottom of this for you. I suspect the issue lies with BT (perhaps a faulty line card at the exchange).

[Raz]

Your internal wiring is adding a bit of noise; now that you've moved to the test socket, you're getting the highest possible sync of 8,128k, which would give you a profile of 7,150k. But, that's something we can look at at a later date, because the stats from the extension socket are absolutely fine, and the BT speed test results show that your profile is correct for the sync.

So, the only issue is the throughput, for which there is no logical explanation given all the information you've provided. Definitely send IDNet an email or give them a call on Monday and they will most probably get onto BT about this. Throughput of 3,500k on a 6,000k is not acceptable and I'm sure IDNet will agree.

Once the fault is sorted, you might want to think about removing the ring wire from all the sockets in your property. This should reduce the noise picked up by extension wiring, and allow you to achieve full sync at an extension socket. But, like I say, things are looking good at the moment anyway in terms of your connection rate and stats; it's just the throughput issue, which is not likely to be something at your end.

Let us know how you get on, and I hope this helps.

Thanks for the advice. Ive sent IDnet an email and will let you know if they can sort me out.

EDIT: Out of curiosity i ran another speedtest just now

Test1 comprises of Best Effort Test:  -provides background information.
    IP profile for your line is - 6000 kbps
    DSL connection rate: 448 kbps(UP-STREAM)  7488 kbps(DOWN-STREAM)
    Actual IP throughput achieved during the test was - 1396 kbps

Im guessing thats not good at all?

[Sebby]

Nope, not good at all! You should be getting 5500+ I'd say. This issue is in good hands now, though. 

[Raz]

Nope, not good at all! You should be getting 5500+ I'd say. This issue is in good hands now, though. 

I really hope so. My other issue, the frequent disconnections just happened again while i was playing poker. Out of the blue the green i with a circle round it on the router turns orange and flashes for about a minute, then connection is restored, but not before mucking any hand i was involved in and costing me serious cash. This frustrates me more than anything and i just dont know what do to about it anymore. To date ive replaced my router, all cables, the microfilters, even my ISP. Im starting to think ill have to move home just to get a stable connection... quite depressing.

[Rik]

Hi Raz

Your stability problems are nothing to do with the ISP, unless you unbundle, you'll take them wherever you go. The probability is that your internal house phone wiring is an issue, and you need to resolve that, as Sebby has said. Once you're sure that's not an issue, then get IDNet to test the line, and they'll get a BT engineer out if required. Be aware, though, that he will connect at the test socket (creating one if needs be), and if he finds no fault at that point, you will be looking at a bill of £160+. However, it may be you have a problem with the exchange pair, or a jumpering fault at the exchange, that can be fixed and with IDNet you have an ISP who will make sure it happens.

[Raz]

Hi Raz

Your stability problems are nothing to do with the ISP, unless you unbundle, you'll take them wherever you go. The probability is that your internal house phone wiring is an issue, and you need to resolve that, as Sebby has said. Once you're sure that's not an issue, then get IDNet to test the line, and they'll get a BT engineer out if required. Be aware, though, that he will connect at the test socket (creating one if needs be), and if he finds no fault at that point, you will be looking at a bill of £160+. However, it may be you have a problem with the exchange pair, or a jumpering fault at the exchange, that can be fixed and with IDNet you have an ISP who will make sure it happens.

Hi Rik

Im confused again. I know Sebby mentioned that i was getting a bit of noise, but also stated that "the stats from the extension socket are absolutely fine". I took that to mean that whilst the internal wiring was causing some slowdown, it was nothing major and isnt the reason for the poor throughput. Or are the poor speeds and the poor stability 2 seperate issues?

I'll get someone to look at my wiring, if you think that will help. Im just not sure exactly what im asking him to check.

[Rik]

Poor speeds and instability are often related, Raz, though you don't seem to be losing much by using the extension. However, the connection drops are always a local issue, ie between your equipment and the exchange, and nothing to do with the ISP. One of the most common causes of them is bursts of noise. Removing the ring wire from terminal three of all sockets is a good start in reducing the pickup of noise. Something else you might want to try is disconnecting your Sky box from the phone line - they have been known to put massive amounts of noise on the line. Unless you have a multi-room setup, Sky don't tend to police the connection.

When the router was connected to the test socket, and therefore everything else was disconnected, did you have greater stability? The wireless connection dropping is a completely separate issue, btw, and could be signs of a fault in the router or, more likely, interference from a nearby network. Changing from the default channel to either channel 1 or 6 might help in that respect.

[Raz]

I'll try disconnecting sky and see if that helps. Another thing ive just remembered, when we recieved phonecalls i often got the dreaded orange light and connection dropped. Does that shed any light?

I'll also look into removing this ring wire thingie. Heck at this point id happily run round my house naked for an hour if you told me it might do the trick!

The router wasnt in the test socket long enough to do anything other than grab the stats. The wireless d/c's made it impossible to do anything really.

EDIT: Could sky be a problem, even though its connected to the main socket and the router is connected to the extension upstairs?

[Rik]

I'll try disconnecting sky and see if that helps. Another thing ive just remembered, when we recieved phonecalls i often got the dreaded orange light and connection dropped. Does that shed any light?

You could have an HR fault then, or a faulty filter.

I'll also look into removing this ring wire thingie. Heck at this point id happily run round my house naked for an hour if you told me it might do the trick!

Just don't post the video.  Instructions are here:

http://www.idnetters.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=1904.msg31528#msg31528

The router wasnt in the test socket long enough to do anything other than grab the stats. The wireless d/c's made it impossible to do anything really.

If you can stand the experiment, and the other suggestions don't help, you might want to try it there again for a while to see if things improve. If they do, it's almost certainly your wiring, if they don't, it's probably a BT fault.

[Lance]

Have you tried replacing all the filters? Sometimes if the connection drops when the phone rings it could be down to a dodgy filter.

[Rik]

The other thing I forgot to mention, Raz. If you have a MW transistor radio, tune it off station, so you only have white noise, then walk around with it, near your phone wiring, sockets etc and also around the router & Sky box. If the noise gets markedly louder, you've found one source of your problems.

[Raz]

Lance, thanks for the suggestion. Ive just ordered 2 new adsl nation filters from the site suggested in Riks self help thread.

Rik, ive unplugged sky and managed to wiggle free the orange wires from trap 3 of the main socket. I cant however take out the wire from the upstairs extension without a tiny screwdriver which i dont possess. I'll try again with that tomorrow.

I cant find a transistor radio so cant perform that test.

Ive redone my router stats after the changes. The noise margin is alot different to the other stats i posted... tell me thats a good thing!

System Up Time 06:58:03
Port Status TxPkts RxPkts Collisions Tx B/s Rx B/s Up Time
WAN PPPoA 698 718 0 304 617 00:08:10
LAN 10M/100M 32951 31119 0 817 263 06:57:59
WLAN 11M/54M 750 18 0 8 0 06:57:48


ADSL Link Downstream Upstream
Connection Speed 7904 kbps 448 kbps
Line Attenuation 38 db 11 db
Noise Margin 1 db 25 db

[Rik]

Your sync speed has gone up,, Raz and this is about the noisiest time of night, so your margin has gone down. If the line holds overnight, the NM should return to normal.